Monday, September 29, 2014

Yep... One year goes by pretty darn quick!
The zone conference was awesome! We learned a lot
and had a sweet all-you-can-eat BBQ lunch! it was sweet! I think
sister will put up the pictures here in a little bit.

I still like the area, but it´s really hot outside! And sometimes even hotter inside!I
still am pretty tired during the day. I don´t sleep all that well, I
don´t know if it´s because of the heat or something else.

I
don´t think they do anything for halloween. It´s not a holiday here.
And they usually don´t care too much for holidays... Only easter, and
even then, nobody decorates for any holiday other than the world cup.

On
P-days we just write, buy food and stuff, and then go home and clean
and try not to die from the heat. There´s pretty much nothing we can do
in our area. And if we were to do something, it has to be done in our
proseliting clothes. The zoos and museums are all closed on mondays for
cleaning too.For general conference we´re going to watch it at the church
building. It´s going to be from 1 to 3 and then 5 till 7. I just hope
that it isn´t super hot in our church building. It doesn´t have AC...

Oh!
My birthday package finally arrived! Thanks for the Brazilian shirt!
It´s pretty sweet!(And super soft!) I inflated one of the punch
balloons during the morning and when we got home it had popped... But I
put up the streamer deal and it´s a sweet addition to the house! :)

Saturday, September 13, 2014

How´s old uncle Don doing? I keep forgetting to ask about him...
Deiviane showed me the birthday video! It was super awesome to see you guys and
the Duncan clan there! They had a pretty good lunch prepared at their
house on Saturday and they bought a cake for my birthday! I had
forgotten my camera back home and so i didn´t get any pictures of it.
This week Deiviane invited a friend to have lunch with us at her house.
After lunch she asked us if she could have a Book of Mormon. She read
through the introduction and the testimonies at the beginning that same
day! She also woke up early on Sunday to come to church with Deiviane!
She said that she felt at home there and she really liked the classes!
She seemed like a member there! She made comments and read for the
class and everything! Her name is Mirelle and she accepted to be
baptized on the 13th of September!

Sept 13th 2014

Yea! It was a really special weekend for her! During the
baptizmal service Deiviane gave a really good talk about baptism and
made Mirelle cry. So she had tears running down her face when I
baptized her.

Elder Maguet is 6´4" He´s pretty
tall! And it doesn´t help too much that the rest of us are kinda
short... It makes him look taller!

his past week was pretty good! We didn´t find many others to teach, but
we did find an incomplete family that seems to have some interest! I
think we´ll have a zone conference next week, so that´ll be pretty cool!
Oh, we passed by a place that i´m not sure what they do but outside
there were five little puppies in a box. So we knocked and said to the
guy that they have puppies here. He asked us if we wanted one for free.
We just told him that we just were informing him that they were there.
He then said that we could have all of them if we want. They couldn´t
enter because of some law they have here and so they were just outside
for whoever wanted them. It´s crazy that people just give away dogs
here!

Love you guys so much and hope you have a great week!

*Note from Mirelle: Have to thank you Elders for the help and all the support you have
given me so far. Today is a great day for me, thank you for supporting
me and helping me find the true church!!!

Tuesday, September 9, 2014

This week was pretty awesome! We had trasnfers (that wasn´t what
was awesome btw...) But my new companion is Elder Maguet. He´s from
Kentucky and lived with us in Sete Lagoas! He´s super goofy and an
awesome missionary! We get along really well and we teach well
together!

It did get to be really hot this week, but during
the weekend it cooled down quite a bit! I think in about a week or so
i´ll be more used to the heat here.

This week
we focused a lot on helping Mirelle, Deiviane´s friend. We started
teaching her family too, or at least her mom. Her step-dad isn´t at
home very much... And they´re not married... But her mom is super kind
and always asks for forgiveness because she thought that we weren´t a
good influence on people, due to the things that people say about ´´the
mormons´´. After church yesterday, she came up to me and said that
she´s been thinking a lot about baptism these past few days and she
dreamed of baptizing. We set her baptism for this Saturday! It´s going
to be an awesome day! Deiviane´s super excited because she´ll be able
to come to church with someone!

I think I´m doing okay with money, there are some times where money gets a little tight, but i´m trying to manage my money well.

Monday, August 25, 2014

Thanks for the happy birthday wishes! It´s going to be a little strange to have a birthday away from my family.

That´s
awesome that Jordan will be giving his farewell talk on my birthday!
Then he´s off the the MTC in a little over a week after that, right?

Deiviane
is great! She´s offered to make lunch for us quite a bit lately, we
ate there twice last week and we´ll eat there again this Saturday! She
really wants her family to return to activity in the church so we visit
there frequently. Her family is pretty humble, they don´t have much and
they live at the end of the longest neighborhood that we have in our
area.

A few weeks ago I bought a recorder so I can learn
how to play it. My companion has one and it´s pretty cool to hear him
play hymns. So I´m learning the recorder, again, but this time I´m
doing a lot better than I did in 4th grade! I asked a member here to
buy a simplified hymnbook for me cause they´re going to the temple this
week. I´m going to be a flute tooter! :)

We went to another city so my companion could
interview a lady for her baptism. While we were there Anotônio showed
up at the chapel there! He´s a delivery guy for a candy company and was
making his rounds there in Janaúba! We hitched a ride with him on the
way home and we almost witnessed an accident! There was a curve in the
road and a semi in front of us (along with a few other cars). A car
from behind decided that he needs to be in the front and crossed over to
the other side of the street to pass everyone and as he took the curve
another car from the other side of the street came around the curve
also! They almost hit, but the car coming from the other side turned to
the shoulder (that almost doesn´t exist) and they passed without
hitting! But it was crazy to see how pressed for time some people are!

It´s starting to get pretty hot (or at least hotter
than usual). Summer´s starting up again. It doesn´t seem like it ever
left!

Sunday, August 24, 2014

This week was pretty good! We got a couple good
references! One is called Lucione and she was a reference from João
Paulo! She really liked the message that we shared with her and she has
a lot of curiosity about the Book of Mormon because she took João Paulo
on a trip to work and he brought along his Book of Mormon to read in
his free time!

There´s another lady in the ward who´s grandma came
to church a few weeks ago and we visited her and another girl that´s
studying here in Montes Claros. Her name is Jorgeane and she really
likes the Book of Mormon! We haven´t been able to visit her very much
this week because the member´s grandparents got really sick this week
and are in the hospital for now...

A young woman (her name
is Deiviane) also referred us to her friend Glace. She accepted to be
baptized on the 30th! She has been going with Deiviane to a lot of
church activities. Oh! Deiviane sent a friend request to mom on FB.

Antônio didn´t take the plunge this week...but we had some pretty good
lessons with him this week and it looks like he´ll be all ready to go
this weekend or maybe the next! He always gives us rides to our next
appointment or from our previous appointment, so we use that as a way to
travel from one side of the area to the other!

We have watermelon here, but I don´t buy it cause
it´s kinda pricy... watermelon is not the greatest here in Montes Claros because
it´s really dry! It sprinkled a little this week and we had cloud
cover for a few days so that was cool! In
the way of eating habits and such, there isn´t anything strange. Other
than putting the beans under the rice... Usually you use a fork and a
knife. They have a couple dishes that they put pig snout, tail and feet
in there, but I´ve never had it offered to me.

Wednesday, August 13, 2014

I asked Greg to send me a picture of his name tag... I'd not seen it before. It filled me with joy. What a special responsibly to be a witness of our Savior Jesus Christ, and His church.

This week was pretty good! On thursday we had lunch with the district
president and his family, just that he didn´t get there on time so we
stayed outside his house contating people around us. We contacted a guy
named Leandro, he told us to pass by his house in an hour or so. After
lunch we went there and his mom and nefew were there also. We taught
them the first lesson and learned that they want to be baptized!
They´ve got a smoking difficulty, for now, but each day they´re smoking
less and less! They weren´t able to make it to church this week but I
can´t wait for the next week when they come with us!

We also got a hold of Antônio again! He accepted to be baptized
this weekend (with a little doubt, but it´ll happen)! His wife let him
back in his house, and they came to church together! We helped him pursue a cat that was in his yard and the darned thing ended up biting
me a couple times! He also bit my companion, and his tooth went through
my companion´s thumb nail! The cat was pretty crazy! After catching
it, Antônio threw the cat into the neighbor´s yard (where it came from).

The yards here are surrounded with walls. Usually the walls
are about 7 or 8 feet high so it´s a kinda hard for something (or
someone) to enter or escape a yard here.

Yea, there´s four of us in the house. It´s a little crazy when the
bathroom is being used (cause we only have one...) We all get along
well! There isn´t anyone that´s really annoying here.

I bet that was a pretty awesome experience to go through the temple with Jordan!

Yea... Collin and Cameron hit one year this past week! It´s pretty nuts!

It has been really hot this week! And kinda dry too! There hasn´t been rain here for over 5 months!

Monday, August 4, 2014

We started visiting a less active family that lives out at the end of
the world here in Montes Claros and they´ve got a parrot! He´s pretty
awesome! :)

Natália and Carlos were confirmed yesterday and João Paulo showed up for
sacrament meeting! Natália has won herself a slightly crazy old(ish)
member in the ward who wants to date her. She´s not too jazzed about
that... It seems that João Paulo really has changed his life around
again! He stayed for the whole meeting and has made quite a few friends
with the young men in the branch.

We got to talk with Antônio again and he came to church this week (with
his wife and daughter)! He´s allowed to move back in to his house, and
he seems a lot happier now! They´ve made goals to read The Book of
Mormon together and hopefully everything goes well this week! I think
that next week he´ll be baptized! (It´s kinda tough to get a hold of
him because he travels during the week for work.)

I miss having a temple so close! I know I didn´t go as often as I
should have, but it really is different when there is a temple so close!
Here in Montes Claros I think it´s about a 16 or 17 hour bus ride to
the closest temple...

This week I got a package from Fernanda and Tiago (pictured above), from my last area. It had a bunch of chocolates and stuff in it! It was an unexpected
surprise!(We are all so grateful for thoughtful members such as these two, who are so kind and thoughtful to our son while he there in Brazil)

Monday, July 28, 2014

This week was pretty awesome! We had two baptisms! Natália and her son Carlos were
baptized! She had said that she only would be baptized if João Paulo
was there, but he didn´t show up... We´ve got to find that kid...
They´re references from Jeanny and her family (they´re the family in
the photo). The water was really cold! And Natália didn´t seem too
excited to be in it, but as she came out of the water all the worry and
doubt on her face went away and was replaced with a smile and with joy!
It was a really special baptism!I´m doing well! My skin is getting more used to the
sun here, it´s getting a little darker and less red. (Unless we´re
running a little late to an appointment...)

The past week we started to visit a guy named Antônio. His wife is a
member that´s returning to activity in the church. He didn´t come to
church last week because of some family issues. Turns out that his wife
kicked him out because he came home drunk... We met with him this week
and he´s been living with his sister until he gets everything all
straightened out. He came to church this week (alone) and really
enjoyed the mettings! The branch president talked with him for a while
and I think that he´ll be able to get his life turned around!

The members do a lot of the cooking. The lady in charge of marking
our lunches sometimes can´t find someone to give us lunch, so she makes
lunch for us! (She runs a... umm.... it´s like a mini restaurant
(it´s called lanchonete here). Her name´s Jeanny.

I learned how to cook basic things at home, and this
helps a lot! I can bake a pretty tasty cake here, but we don´t have
any of those things you put cake batter in to bake it (thinking he is means a cake pan- Hehe).